Research of the Week

So a meta-analysis of around 240 studies just concluded that organic probably offers little nutritional benefit over conventional, leading to numerous “I told you so” quips and smug articles proclaiming organic to be a huge scam. But who ever thought organic was about increasing vitamin content? What about the other results of the study – the fact that conventional food tends to have upwards of 180 times more pesticide residue than organic food – that were mostly ignored by the media?

Interesting Blog Posts

Anastacia from PrimalMedEd recently wrote a nice post addressing all the evidence “for” and against the saturated-fat-will-clog-your-arteries-and-murder-small-children hypothesis. Go check it out, or pass it along to anyone who subscribes to the aforementioned nonsense.

Media, Schmedia

P.K. Subban, a pro hockey player, follows a pretty Primal way of eating: “pretty much meat and vegetables, healthy fats” with a few yams thrown in for good measure. Oh, yeah, and there’s also the whole cow that he eats every summer.

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You want comments? We got comments:

Imagine you’re George Clooney. Take a moment to admire your grooming and wit. Okay, now imagine someone walks up to you and asks, “What’s your name?” You say, “I’m George Clooney.” Or maybe you say, “I’m the Clooninator!” You don’t say “I’m George of George Clooney Sells Movies Blog” and you certainly don’t say, “I’m Clooney Weight Loss Plan”. So while spam is technically meat, it ain’t anywhere near Primal. Please nickname yourself something your friends would call you.

Really liked the “food is information” video, particularly the part right around 9:00 where they start to talk about disease as not something the body is doing wrong, not a mistake it’s making, but something it’s doing to try to survive. Diametrically opposed to the standard diagnose-and-medicate approach to health problems.

I also like the good doctor’s outfit. Striped pants and a velour t-shirt? How cool is that on a cardiologist? LOL

I once tried putting a bit of baking soda in some water I took on a training walk. Fortunately, I didn’t drink any of it until the end of the walk. I BARELY made it to the toilet before having explosive diarrhea.

Yeah, more than a teaspoon, even if I needed it to kill a leg cramp, can give me the runs. I carry a tiny vial of it in case of unexpected cramps, but haven’t needed it in the months I’ve carried it now that I supplement magnesium and don’t give my legs more than they can handle.

Completely agree with the point on organic food. The main reason I eat organic wherever possible is to reduce the number of chemicals that I eat. Yes, if its got more vitamins that would be a plus but the main thing is that it has less bad things!

Therefore, when I read the news stories I pretty much instantly dismissed them as an argument against organic food. The point about the number of pesticides found in non-organic food was a major confirmation for me that organic is good!

Its amazing how different people can pick up on completely different things from the same piece of research.

Err… that’s not exactly true. Organic food can be grown from genetically modified seed. Most of what’s grown in nurseries is genetically modified. You have to buy heirloom, or heritage seeds, or non-gmo specific seeds to be non-gmo. And if you use pesticides or non-organic fertilizers to grow it, then it’s not organic.

I’ve always thought that the ‘same vitamins’ line is something dreamed up by the chemical industry to reduce consumer interest in organics. (I think most people are with you, and other commenters, that it’s about pesticide residues on food, in soil, contaminating farmworkers, etc.)

I can appreciate the idea that growing things “organically” (ie using animal mnure for fertilizer etc) is beneficial in building healthy soil which builds healthy plants that naturally resist disease from inects etc. I know from personal experience that it works. I also know from personal experience that the “organic” pesticides don’t work as well as “conventional” pesticides, therefore you end up using more pesticide. Some of the OMRI approved pesticides are just as dangerous as Sevin or some other conventional chemicals.
Just because a product has “organic” on the label doesn’t necessarily make it a healthy product…. I mean if a Twinkie were made with organic ingredients, it is healthier than a regular Twinkie????

I think the organic vs non-organic argument often looses site of a larger more altruistic point. Eating and supporting organic production methods means less exposure of chemicals to farmers and farm workers. As a life long resident of working family farms I can attest to the statistically higher rates of cancer and autoimmune diseases amongst those living rurally. Although we farm organically it is like feeling smug about swimming in the non-peeing section of the pool-it’s all around us.
Thanks to each of you who vote with your dollars.Demand by consumers is what will bring an end to chemical farming!

The “food is information” video was great overall, especially the part about cholesterol being an arterial band-aid. I would point out, however, that Chris Masterjohn and other studies have already showed the “acidifying diet leeches calcium from bones” thing to be fundamentally flawed. Vitamin and animal protein intake are much more important for preventing osteoporosis than the net acidity of the diet. Other than that, very up-to-date info from the good doctor and an excellent introduction to epigenetics.

I think CM is addressing the idea that a traditional diet with foods commonly said to acidify – one of the main arguments against meat eating –

however, an unscientific observation of the culture i now live in – swiss – would clearly demonstrate that lifelong consumption of refined grains, sugar combined with dairy (wrong cow dairy – A1 milk…) results in the abundance of post-60 dowagers humps and huge numbers of old people struggling to get around with walkers, canes and the rest.

this kind of degeneration – due to bone density loss and osteoporosis, just does not exist in traditional cultures w/o these toxic acidifying foods.

Good point. Looks like it’s only the protein that’s increasing the calcium absorption from the intestines. So the protein in dairy would… kind of work. Not nearly enough protein to fix its acidifying effect though (or lack of K2 if we’re talking grain-fed cows). And I have actually been to Switzerland! Healthier than America for sure, but I can see what you mean.

Buried in the article in our newspaper – but there, if you read it all – was mention that meat from animals given antibiotics tended to have more antibiotic-resistant bacteria, percentage -wise, than “organically” raised animals. That, right there, is a great argument for not eating “conventional” meat. It even had a short paragraph on finding meat sources that don’t use antibiotics.

About “Media, Schmedia” they should search and the other side of the coin: the unpublished trials, because there is a tendecy a lot of journals to publish only studies with significant results (to the favorable direction) and hide studies with insignificant(or with the opposite direction)results. Publication bias should concern, as well.

i’ll tell you a difference, fitness, pesticides and herbicides – as an organic grower of speciality tomatoes, it became abundantly clear – the cost of a super-toxic brew to control cutworms was 9 buck a gallon – one application and whamo – all bug life in the row dead. the cost of generally “safe” cutworm control organic was 46 bucks, 3 applications and only 60%-80% results.

The supposed effects of consuming pesticide- and hormone-laden foods are not usually presumed to be immediate, but are most likely incremental and cumulative over time. A comparison of organic versus conventional foods and the hypothesized differential effects on health can only be determined by a randomized, longitudinal, study comparing groups that exclusively eat one type or the other. Such a study will never be done because it would be incredibly difficult and expensive. I will just say that, after years of dismissing organic foods, I have definitely decided that I would rather limit my exposure to exogenous pesticides and hormones, if I can help it. I have definitely increased my consumption of organic foods, especially eggs and meat.

If the organic farm in question is doing business as usual in soil as depleted as it was before going organic, then it would come as no suprise that there is then no difference in nutrition.

There’s conventional agriculture, there’s organic agriculture and then there’s sustainable agriculture. Organic and sustainable can be different things. Sustainable agriculture focuses on the fertility of the soil in perpetuity–it’s soil-centered. Whereas to be certified organic, one could merely swap the conventional chemicals one uses for the organic version of the same — plant-centered. You can be sustainable and not organic (conventional pesticides are used only as a last resort), and you can definitely be organic and not sustainable.

Agreed -I work for a farm that uses sustainable methods and I think it’s a very good system. I also think eating locally produced food in season is preferable to remotely produced food whether it is organic or not. I know it may not be available to everybody, but your farmer’s market is a great place to start.

There is an excellent analysis of the science of that study on greenmedinfo.com Also, one of the comments claimed that chemical pesticides work better than the organic ones and that organic “pesticides” are just as dangerous. This is not true. I have been gardening for 40 years and I believed that when I first went organic. Now that I have decades of experience, I know that organic techniques are far superior to chemical ones. It is like the difference between driving a car and flying a jet. Anyone can learn to drive a car and quickly, but a jet takes knowledge and skill. I could drink any of the organic pest controls that I use. There are organics that are poison, but most organic gardeners and farmers do NOT choose to use them.

The type and amount of organic material that has gone into an organic garden is not the same for all gardens. The number of years a gardener has been building his soil also makes a big difference. I’m 60 years old, and been gardening without chemicals all my life. They would have to give me a count of the earth worms per square foot in their “organic” garden before I would pay much attention to their study.

Be careful. I used it for awhile and it did good things, especially to prevent and instantly eliminate leg cramps. But it is also DANGEROUS in that it is extremely alkaline and can eventually lead to alkalosis. I was also told it can remove magnesium from the body. So save the soda for emergencies and maybe competition if you’re looking for some nitro in the tank. And the recommended doses range from one to three teaspoons per day max.

Thank you for pointing out that we might be eating organic not because we think it definitely has more nutrients but rather to avoid the unwanted chemicals in conventional produce. Not to mention that we might choose food that is kinder to the planet and to the people who work to produce it.

incidenally, a farm that is not fully organic, but say has started the process may still have toxins in the soil that have not been cleansed but the soil community, indeed if there are toxins in the soil you will maybe get toxins in the produce, hence the 3 year delay in certification..it is difficult to achieve and needs utter commitment..not always possible and hence the system is being erroded.

If not considerable, at least there is some notable differences in the nutritional content of a organic egg yolk compared to a convetional one; we have about 10% more Magnesium, some more of the cholesterol and finally a few micrograms more of most of the minerals and vitamins. All this according to the very much conventional Swedish National Food Administration. These are lab measurements.
We can be pretty damn sure that we will at least not miss out on anything should we buy the organic egg

A study saying that organic food was “no more nutritious” thank inorganic food because it contains the same amount of certain vitamins or minerals is like saying like a person with cancer is “just as healthy” as a person who does not have cancer because they both have the same blood pressure.

I tried mixing a little baking soda and cinnamon in honey. It was good by itself in small quantities and made a good sauce for protein bars.
I got a boost of energy after snacking on protein bars with the mixture. The bars also had baking soda in them and it tasted like a lot.

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